Deep Blue Goodbye/Travis McGee film? - Page 2

I was watching ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, and Redford/Hoffman made for a good McGee/Meyer combo.

But I'm pretty sure the first, more tropical half of CASINO ROYALE is the closest we'll get to a decent McGee movie.

Is this essentially an all-purpose Travis McGee thread?

Because I would like to talk about the books by themselves. I'm working my way through them for the first time right now, not in any order, and I'm not sure whether they're great exactly, but I am addicted.

MacDonald's a great writer in his way, and a lot of individual passages are outstanding, but he suffers from "every character talks the same" syndrome more than any other author I've read. All the plots rely on minor characters remembering - in vivid detail - events that happened months or even years prior. That's all part of the fun, but it takes a few books for this to sink in.

What is everyone's pick for best book? I personally couldn't even begin to guess.

I would have voted for A DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD as worst, because it's so long, the plot and pacing are all over the place, and I had no idea what was going on, but by the end of it I felt that I'd read an epic, and it's the one I most want to revisit.

The best part of the series is the villains, easy. Absolutely the scariest, most vile bad guys I've read about. You can't wait for Travis to just get rid of them. Junior Allen in DEEP BLUE GOODBYE probably takes the cake, but the bad guy in A TAN AND SANDY SILENCE gives him a run for his money.

I understand that BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD has a super-scary redneck bad guy called Boone Waxwell, but that's one of the books I can't find a copy of anywhere.

I'm about to give the books a whirl, but in typical OCD-having chronological order.

Hey, I just didn't want him dressing up in a superhero costume. Giving Hamm a blue-collar, American Bond-ish franchise would be swell.

Paul - http://cgi.ebay.com/Bright-Orange-fo...item2c50e3d680

Even better quality link to the fight scene!

Edit: Try to picture Leo DiCaprio spouting off any of this:
With that reedy voice of his, he's going to sound like some Fight Club asshole.

That's why I can only ever picture Steve McQueen as Travis when I read them. MacDonald writes like I imagine McQueen talked did in real life. So HEP, MAN... so WITH IT.

I'm not sure reading them in order is a great idea. DEEP BLUE GOODBYE is a great introduction, but the 2nd one, NIGHTMARE IN PINK, is possibly the biggest turd in the whole series. Just so wonky. That said, reading such a wonky book so soon out of the traps is a good primer for how weird the series could be.

I just read ONE FEARFUL YELLOW EYE. 90% of it takes place in Chicago in Christmas week, and then suddenly the climax takes place 2 months later in Florida. I'm pretty sure that violates all narrative/storytelling rules, but MacDonald doesn't seem to give a shit.

Neat article about the early efforts to translate the character to a filmed medium.

Thought of this casting this afternoon.

God damn. That's solid. We're just pissing ourselves off though. And is Leo down with a franchise? I'm thinking no.

Okay, you guys sold me on picking these up even though I've never read a single one of the series and the only knowledge I have of Travis McGee is the dude who boards here under that pseudonym. I kinda fell in love with some of those passages that Phil posted up there, and of course the endorsements from Rath and Cameron don't hurt either. When it comes to crime fiction, I'll follow you two like a baby goose.

I don't suppose anybody remembers which one has McGee's thoughts on surround-sound stereo? He ultimately thinks it sounds bland and forgettable, because the band is supposed to be over there. I'd like to re-read it, but I have no clue which book it was in, and buzzing through the stack of McGee paperbacks at home is kind of daunting.

Can't remember which book, either, but remember he called the 70s version "quadra-phony."

I watched Inglourious Basterds again a week ago, and still can't quite believe that was Rod Taylor as Churchill.

For the OCDers, here's the order of publishing:

1964 The Deep Blue Good-By
1964 Nightmare In Pink
1964 A Purple Place For Dying
1964 The Quick Red Fox
1965 A Deadly Shade of Gold
1965 Bright Orange for the Shroud
1966 Darker than Amber
1966 One Fearful Yellow Eye
1968 Pale Gray for Guilt
1969 The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
1969 Dress Her in Indigo
1970 The Long Lavender Look
1972 A Tan and Sandy Silence
1973 The Scarlet Ruse
1974 The Turquoise Lament
1975 The Dreadful Lemon Sky
1978 The Empty Copper Sea
1980 The Green Ripper
1981 Free Fall in Crimson
1982 Cinnamon Skin
1985 The Lonely Silver Rain

I do recommend going in order, although there's not a lot of serialization. There's a handful of once-or-twice recurring characters beyond McGee and Meyer (and the colorful-background neighbors like the Alabama Tiger), though they're not usually so crucial. In one case, there's a huge payoff by the end of the series, though.

Especially, though, the last 5 must be read last, and in order. Green Ripper is practically a sequel to Empty Copper Sea (avoid the Sam Elliot TV movie, fair warning), and same with Cinnamon Skin to Free Fall in Crimson. Both, though, for character reasons, not plot/villain. (Green Ripper especially departs from the con/mystery vein more than any other in the series.) McGee and Meyer really get put through the changes in those. And The Lonely Silver Rain is most definitely the final chapter as intended by MacDonald. Probably the most satisfying capper to a long-running series as I've ever come across, in just about any medium.

The first four -- all knocked out in '64! -- are definitely MacDonald feeling his legs and sorting out the character. Quick, dirty, relatively simple action/mystery for plots. But in lots of ways interchangeable (other than Pink's trippier parts). Deadly Shade of Gold was his attempt at making something Bigger, and he admitted later he overreached, too soon, and sort of blew it. Still, it's got mostly great parts, they just make for a muddled whole. Later he got the hang of McGee operating in a larger scope. But if the first 5 don't turn you away, there's platinum coming. There's hardly a dog in the middle run (though Dress Her In Indigo is definitely the weakest).

I hate you for putting Aaron Eckhart in my head, Cameron. I'm doing my best to think positive for Leo, but he's got such an uphill battle to make this work.

EDIT: That passage on San Fransisco is one of my favorites. MacDonald could pull off metaphor like nobody's business.

I'm not a super huge fan. They are awfully dated the earlier you go, but they're really important to the genre and influenced damn near every big writer. Don Winslow told me several years ago that Boone Daniels was going to be his McGee. The books are shockingly angry social fiction at times.

Treat it like Mad Men and the dated stuff, like attitude toward women, won't bother you that much.

Plus, McGee is human, there's a brain and heart to the series, which is why I kinda hate Lee Child's overly macho Jack Reacher.

I really hate Leo as McGee. Even Matt Damon would be better, Downey could have pulled it off too, but I kinda love my idea of Eckhart. He could easily pull off that 60's Mad Men look.

Link? I love Moriarty's passion.

"Moriarty" tends to embarrass himself when he's overly passionate about something. I don't feel like taking a cheap shot about his kid's name or being banned from the ranch or loudly vowing to never watch a franchise again or whatever, but Devin's passion > Drew's passion. (Sorry, Drew! No offense meant)

Fanwank alert! If they're not going to go period with the film adaptations (but especially if they ARE), Riann Johnson could probably adapt the shit out of Travis McGee. If I'm late to that revelation, apologies.

Lets talk directors!

I was watching the greatly underrated The Mexican this afternoon and Gore Verbinski could be very cool.

I'll be really disappointed if the eventual film is just an action-fest.

George Armitage's heart was frequently in the right place. Not sure why his resume is so sparse.

I mentioned it in a different thread, but if THE WAY OF THE GUN is any indication, Christopher McQuarrie would be perfect. The action scenes were all super-realistic and educational, which is the best thing about the McGee books. There is also plenty of black humour, nastiness, and absurd philosophizing. And although it was set in modern times, it felt like it could have been made in 1971.

TAN AND SANDY SILENCE is probably a favourite of mine, insofar as I have one. Plenty of beachcombing and smut and seduction, combined with a confusing financial flim-flammery plotline, horrifying villain, plenty of philosophical navel-gazing, and Meyer at his most loveable.

It also has a funny part where Travis' girlfriend bitches to him and he says "What are you talking about, woman?" 100% Pure Steve McQueen!

Also HEY it appears some fruitcake academic has written an ENTIRE BOOK about the Travis McGee series. It's pretty good reading.
You can read whole bunches of it here.

Darker Than Amber has a couple nuggets which would give Tarantino a boner (great POV shot from the bottom of a full bathtub), but is hamstrung by a script that seems to only occasionally remember the flavor of the books. McGee is written as more of a bohemian than the deep thinker of the books. The plot to foil the villains is sort of Scooby-Dooish in nature, and I'm not sure but I think Trav got shitfaced during that plot for no apparent reason.

Great score; direction sporadically rises above tv-movie level. Would love to see it widescreen; the cropped full frame feels cramped a lot of the time. Decent location work. The casting is all pretty great, really: In stills I thought Rod Taylor was too old and squatty, but he's a goddamn bruiser, really sells it. Bikel is good as Meyer, but you have no idea who he is or why he's there. An hour into the film he mentions an economics background. Suzy Kendall and Anna Capri are drop dead gorgeous. William Smith and his bodybuilder sidekick are like oily, low-rent Bond henchmen - Red Grant crossed with Wint and Kidd. I feel okay about the five bucks I spent on iOffer to get this.

So I found out yesterday that my library copy of Deep Blue Good-By is missing a ton of pages, like someone just haphazardly went in and tore them out here and there. I dropped by my favorite haunt and they ordered a copy for me, so it looks like I'll be reading other stuff until I can catch up to this. Sucks, because I was REALLY enjoying it.

You know Lawrence Block can often be found there, right?

Edit: My bad, I'm thinking of Otto Penzler's store in Manhattan. Mixed up the name.

I was struck by how small the story in The Deep Blue Good-By is (in the context of "They're going to make a franchise with Leo DiCaprio out of this?", at any rate). It's a small, intimate kind of detective story, full of little character moments and the kinds of sidebars that get whacked right out of film adaptations. Can definitely see what Paul McCartney was saying about the "tropical" parts of Casino Royale feeling the most like a Travis McGee film.

Yeah, I got to the part with Lois which was just heartbreaking yet really, really good and kind of an interesting character moment for McGee. Mystery Bookstore just got my copy of The Deep Blue Good-By in, so I'm gonna grab it on Monday and finish it up.

I love how the villain's grand scheme is to invite a nerdy 15 year old girl and her friends on a cruise, and then coerce her friends to bully her so intensely that it breaks her spirit. So small-scale, but just so nasty.

You may want to skip NIGHTMARE IN PINK, Phil. I genuinely fear for your attempts to get through the series chronologically. It's the turd of the series.

I'm a little over halfway through Nightmare in Pink. Nothing's, you know, happened yet, but it's kind of fun to noodle around New York high society with McGee.

Also just got through watching Darker than Amber, too (Thanks, Phil!). It's an interesting not-quite success, but I would have really liked to see Taylor get another chance at the role.

Taylor's good, isn't he? I read a book and a half so far with him elbowing Jon Hamm out of the frame as McGee.

The first time I read The Deep Blue Good-By was in high school. I kept picturing McGee as a late-70's era Jimmy Buffett.

This thread (and potential Leo movie) got me to blow the dust off the paperbacks for the first time in 7-8 years for an overdue revisit. (With a Stephen King digression after AMBER.)

Aaron Eckhart is really working his way into my mental screening room. I still haven't caught up to MAD MEN (hey, it's somewhere in the queue, okay?) so I only really know Jon Hamm from pictures and short appearances elsewhere, so maybe that'd change, but Eckhart I can see pulling off the whole list: the charm, the lazy, the physicality, the corny smartass, the ease in high and low social situations, and I can see his face contorting into something genuinely frightening in moments of violence.

It was settled in AMBER when I saw him and Steve Carrell's Meyer (still a stroke of genius) bantering effortlessly. I tried to force Leo in there, but just couldn't happen. Leo's really gonna hurt to watch struggle with (or maim) the character.

I'd forgotten that in MacDonald's overreach in DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD -- turning McGee into an international man of mystery uncovering insidious Commie blackmail-and-murder plots -- that he also had McGee cutting through a swath of women that'd leave Bond exhausted. That one set the gaudy series record of 5 different ladies bedded; of course, 4 of the 5 depress the shit out of him (and the 5th gets killed).

Then in BRIGHT ORANGE FOR THE SHROUD (very minor spoilers), written immediately after, MacDonald pulls back so far from GOLD's model that it's not just smaller in scope and entirely contained in Florida, and McGee doesn't just not get laid at all, he turns two ladies down, twice (with hearty and fatuous self-congratulation). Back to back with GOLD, that cracked me up.

Whoever said it earlier, you're so correct: AMBER is such a Scooby-Doo plot. I'm amazed that one was picked for adaptation over, say, ORANGE, with its much better villain and straightforward con game story.

Anyway -- Eckhart. Subtle lifts to add a couple inches to his six foot frame, he's McGee. And I promised myself I'd stop whining about DiCaprio.

Eckhart's an excellent choice. For all the leading men in Hollywood, there don't seem to be too many with the acting chops or the physicality for the role.

One a side note, I remember visiting my Uncle in Brooklyn Heights years and years ago, maybe mid-80s....He had all of the first edition McGee paperbacks, every one. those covers were pretty eye-catching to a young feller....or a feller 20 years older, for that matter.

I try whenever possible to picture Steve McQueen, but keep reverting to Wayne Rogers from M*A*S*H without realising it. I am resigned to this.



Here is Wayne in PARTY ANIMAL mode!



What's weird is that if Will Ferrell and Steve Carell played it straight, they'd be a really good McGee/Meyer combo. This is worrying.

On my quest to read the whole series, I just finished THE TURQUOISE LAMENT, which I can already state with confidence is surely one of the best! It includes a delightful scene, tangential to the plot, where McGee makes fun of some innocent guy's toupee, and the guy runs off crying to the bathroom to remove it.

I'm going to try DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD again. I struggled through it the first time, but it's stuck in my head, and I'm not sure why.

While searching for images of Wayne Rogers, surely a first in my life, Google recommended that I try looking for gary burghoff images. It was only then that I realised that Trapper and Radar would make a good McGee/Meyer! Opportunities missed.

Rogers was in an excellent, short-lived crime drama after he left MASH, City of Angels. Don't see him as McGee, however.

This is weird, McCartney, because I've pictured Mike "B.J. Honeycutt" Farrell in the role before. No joke.

Anyone that thinks Will Ferrell would be a good McGee is on crack. Carrell as Meyer is indeed inspired, though.

Drunken flash: With a good script that's set period, I'd be happy to see what Clint Eastwood could do with MacDonald. He's pretty much "of the time" himself, and his classic minimal-frills style could bring over the dated aspects in context and without annoying self-aware ironic winks. He might even be able to make Leo not sound like a smug asshole.

Though best of the best.... I've been revisiting Mann recently (though mea culpa still haven't seen PUBLIC ENEMIES) while revisiting McGee, and that suggestion's definitely the best so far. He has a kind of self-defined genre of Men Doing Their Jobs Goddamn Well, but he always recognizes that it's the internal life and relationships that define his male characters as much or more than their professional prowess. It drives me nuts when people complain about the "time wasted" in HEAT on the women tied to these men; the women are the point of the film, to an extent. Or at least an equal part. Just about every major character had a woman in his life, and more than a few times those relationships drove plot points (and Dennis Haysbert's girl was the emotional punch of the film for me). The male-bonding hand-holding at the fadeout may have been about mutual appreciation between two Men Goddamn Good At Their Jobs, but they wouldn't have been nearly as interesting as characters had we not known them with their women.

OK, cutting off the ramble. Point being, Mann may very well be the modern film equivalent -- as far as internal lives conveyed in film language -- of what MacDonald delivered in print. And I'm not just talking McGee. Condominium was one of his best sellers (if not the); he somehow got people concerned with zoning and real estate and construction codes as thriller elements (an impenmding hurricane helped). Mann can go from crime stories to THE INSIDER and back. They're a natural fit.

So, now I'm gonna make myself not whine we're not getting either a Mann-directed Eckhart McGee or a Clint-directed Leo compromise. Especially that we're almost certainly not getting period. Just finished Pale Gray For Guilt and forgot that the ultimate con is such a simple one, Mamet et al. usually toss it into their first act as a con-game primer. Fantastic. Still '68!

Closest you'll get from Eastwood is Blood Work, but he made Meyer the mystery killer (spoiler!)